It is becoming increasingly clear that the lass of life from the three Palu landslides<\/a>, triggered by the earthquake in Sulawesi<\/a>, is very high.\u00a0 In particular, the two landslides that struck main parts of the town, at Balaroa and Petobo, are thought to have exacted a terrible toll.\u00a0 A spokesman from Indonesia’s disaster agency,\u00a0Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, was quoted thus on Sunday<\/a>:-<\/p>\n \u201cBased on reports from the (village) heads of Balaroa and Petobo, there are about 5,000 people who have not been found. Nevertheless, officials there are still trying to confirm this and are gathering data. It is not easy to obtain the exact number of those trapped by landslides, or liquefaction, or mud.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Given the scale of the Palu landslides, and the very high number of houses involved, this level of loss is entirely possible.\u00a0 It is clear from the videos that the flow was highly mobile, which will have made escape from the crush of houses and debris extremely challenging, especially in a dense network of streets.\u00a0 The mobility of the debris will have meant that buildings will have filled with mud, even where there were voids that might have protected a person.\u00a0 It is therefore unsurprising that no survivors have now been recovered in a week.\u00a0 This AFP video shows the magnitude of the damage<\/a>:-<\/p>\n